Sunday Warm-Up: salfshb secures victory, $111K-plus payday

by Martin Harris on December 2, 2012 7:06 PM

It's December, meaning for much of the world temperatures are getting colder. Meanwhile at PokerStars the Sunday Warm-Up continues to sizzle, providing huge fields and big prize pools to greet players like a nice, inviting fire on a cold winter's day.

There were 3,553 players all gathered around together to start this week's $215 buy-in Sunday Warm-Up, with all of those entries stacking up to build a roaring $710,400 prize pool -- well over the event's $500K guarantee. And after a little over ten-and-a-half hours of play it was salfshb of the United Kingdom left sitting with all of the chips and a $111,533.97 first prize.

Boeree would hit the rail soon thereafter in 478th, earning a $305.47 return on her buy-in. Danzer followed suit by exiting in 448th and de Melo went out moments later in 440th, both earning $312.57 for their finishes. But the others battled onward, with Lykov lasting all of the way to a 155th-place finish ($674.88) while both Petersen and Judet continued to work their contending stacks.

Petersen finally fell in 76th ($1,136.64), and after about nine hours of play Judet became the last Team Pro to go, just missing the final table by making it to 13th place ($3,196.80)

Team PokerStars Pro Toni Judet

Following Judet to the rail were jjjooo111 (12th), locomi (11th), and dirty.brasil (10th), each of whom earned $4,262.40 for their finishes, and with those knockouts the final table was underway.

jurata_PL of Poland began the final table as chip leader while salfshb would begin the final table as one of short stacks. But salfshb would reraise-shove over a gmcrafter open on the very first hand of the final table to force a fold and start gathering chips, a kind of harbinger of things to come for the British player.

PPP-30NA pushed out in 9th

All nine players made it to the nine-and-a-half-hour break, and shortly afterwards the blinds were 100,000/200,000 when PPP-30NA open-raised all in for 1,522,811 from middle position, then watched gmcrafter reraise to 2,845,622 from a couple of seats over.

It folded back to salfshb in the small blind who paused a beat, then reraised all in for 3,999,468. jdimindtrix folded the big blind, and when gmcrafter called the reraise the trio's cards were revealed.

salfshb: A♦K♦
PPP-30NA: 9♠9♣
gmcrafter: A♣Q♠

The flop came 2♦K♠T♠ to put salfshb in front with a pair of kings. The Q♦ turn then gave gmcrafter a lesser pair. The river was the 5♥, meaning salfshb's pair was best and PPP-30NA had been eliminated in ninth.

DuduPoker-Br done in 8th

salfshb was just getting started, as it turned out, and soon thereafter came a 2x opening raise to 400,000 from salfshb from the cutoff seat. DuduPoker-Br reraised to 925,888 from the small blind, and when it folded back to salfshb there came a pause then a reraise-push all in which DuduPoker-Br called with the 2,976,736 left behind.

salfshb had J♣J♦ and DuduPoker-Br A♠Q♥, and after the community cards came K♦K♥T♦K♣9♣ DuduPoker-Br was out in eighth. Meanwhile, salfshub had suddenly become an overwhelming chip leader with more than 14 million, well ahead of jurarta-PL's closest-challenging stack of almost 8.1 million.

gmcrafter crashes in 7th

gmcrafter would be the next to fall in seventh place following a confrontation with zamyak. In that hand, the blinds had increased to 125,000/250,000 when gmcrafter opened with a button raise that zamyak called from the small blind.

The flop came 7♦K♦7♠, and when zamyak checked gmcrafter pushed all in for 664,290 and zamyak quickly called. gmcrafter had A♦9♣ and still needed help versus zamyak's J♦J♥, but the turn was the 5♣ and river the Q♣, and gmcrafter hit the rail in seventh.

Double-KO stops jdimindrix in 6th, Stjerneskud in 5th

Next came a big double-knockout to reduce the field to four players. In that one a short-stacked jdimindtrix open-pushed all in from under the gun, Stjerneskud reraise-shoved from the cutoff seat, then Butros reraised over the top of both from the small blind, forcing a fold from the leader salfshb in the big blind.

As it happened, all three players had picked up pocket pairs, with jdimindtrix showing 7♥7♣, Stjerneskud 9♦9♣, and Butros Q♠Q♦. Five cards later -- J♠2♣6♠A♥6♣ -- Butros still had the best hand, meaning jdimindtrix was out in sixth while Stjerneskud's run had ended in fifth.

jurata_PL felted in 4th

Butros would handle the next elimination as well, once more thanks to having been dealt a big pocket pair.

With the blinds still 125,000/250,000, Butros put in a raise to 500,000 from the cutoff/UTG, then jurata_PL reraised all in from the small blind for 5,623,155 total. zamyak stepped aside, and Butros immediately called, turning over K♣K♦ to jurata_PL's A♦J♣.

The board came 8♦3♠J♠8♠Q♥, giving Butros the almost 11.6 million-plus chip pot and sending jurata_PL out in fourth.

zamyak's aces cracked, out in 3rd

With three left salfshb was still the leader with just under 16.5 million, while Butros had a healthy stack of about 14.5 million. Meanwhile, zamyak would begin the three-handed battle with the short stack, relatively speaking, of just over 4.5 million.

The pair would chip away at zamyak, whittling their opponent down to less than 2 million. zamyak would manage to double through each of them, however, to remain alive. First zamyak used A♥K♦ to double up through the J♣8♠ of salfshb. Then a little later zamyak would double a short stack again with A♣3♠ versus Butros's K♦Q♣.

But zamyak was still well behind the other two, and with the blinds up to 150,000/300,000 was once more sitting with just over 10 big blinds (3,202,456) when salfshb open-pushed all in from the small blind.

zamyak was more than happy to call that raise, having picked up A♠A♦. Meanwhile salfshb had K♠4♠, and it appeared zamyak was on the verge of doubling up again, this time to a relatively comfortable stack.

But alas for zamyak, the flop came Q♠7♠7♥ to give salfshb a spade flush draw, then the T♠ fell on the turn to complete the draw. zamyak still had outs, but the river was the K♦ and they were down to two.

salfshb flops trips to bounce Butros

salfshb started heads-up play with a commanding stack of 29,269,620, almost five times the 6,250,380 that Butros had.

The pair played five small-pot hands, then on the sixth hand between them salfshb opened from the button for 2x to 600,000, Butros called from the small blind, and the pair saw a flop come 8♦6♠6♥.

Butros checked, salfshb fired a continuation bet of 420,420, and when Butros called the pot was 2,100,840.

The turn then brought the 9♠ and another check from Butros. This time salfshb fired a bet of 969,696, and Butros responded fairly quickly with an all-in push for 5,199,960. salfshb took some time to respond, dipping into the time bank for about 20 seconds before finally making the call.

Butros showed T♠9♦ for nines and sixes plus a gutshot draw, while salfshb had K♥6♣ for trip sixes. The river brought the 5♣, and salfshb had won.

Congratulations to safshb of the U.K. for coming back from short-stacked status to start the final table to grab a handsome six-figure first prize!

Speaking of finding a warm spot during the winter months, the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure is coming soon. Have you heard that the first-ever Open-Face Chinese Poker event is on the PCA schedule this year. Read all about it here.